“Yes, sure! It seems that the British escort had gone but halfway to Charleston when a band of five Whigs met them. They had a bit of an argument, and the upshot of it was that father made off. Strange about these Whigs happening to meet them, wasn’t it?” John, unable to restrain his feelings longer, threw his hat high in the air, and rushing up the steps, seized his “little mother” in his arms and began to dance with her about the porch. “What’s that you say? Your father’s escaped?” John quickly released his mother and turned to face the gruff-voiced Captain Heald of the British service, who had just come out of the open door. The boy’s manner instantly changed, although he could not conceal his exultation as he replied: “Yes, sir; he’s escaped! He had no fancy to spend any more time in the ‘provost’ at Charleston. It isn’t a fit place for vermin, to say nothing of human beings.” “I ought to have hanged him, and you, too!” replied the captain. “It’s the only way to deal with such rebels!” “Hanging, sir,” said John, “seems the thing your party do best; unless you have a still stronger fancy for quartering yourselves on your betters.” “Fine parole you’ve kept!” sneered the captain. “I’ll warrant, if the truth were known, you yourself had a share in this escape of your father.” “I’m under no parole not to help my father to freedom,” said John. The captain looked at him angrily a moment, and then, without making any further reply, turned and went down the steps and across the lawn to join some of the soldiers who were quartered on the plantation. “I beg you to be careful, John,” said his mother anxiously, when they were alone again. “You know that man can do whatever he pleases here.” “No,” replied John, “he cannot frighten me with his bluster and his red coat.” “But you must not provoke him. Tarleton has given him full command in this district, and he has already committed outrages that no British regular officer would venture on.” In fact, the war in that region was largely a conflict of partisans native to the soil, and Tory Americans often committed against Whig Americans high-handed acts from which officers accustomed to the procedure of military law would have shrunk. “Very well,” said John, laughing to reassure his mother. “He hasn’t any great cause for liking me, that’s a fact. I’ve let the pigs out of the pens and scared away the chickens, and told the negroes where to hide some of the stuff in the barns. But this last work is the worst--this sending word, as I did, by Moses to Dick Eddy to look out for father when he passed. Heald will never forgive me for that. I’m not afraid, though,” he added, as he left his mother and followed the captain across the lawn.